Gnostic Gospels

There are Christians and there are Gnostics, one cannot be both.

Is it not corrinthians (or galatians, can't remember) where it says do not set before your eyes anything wicked or evil?....
Just knowing enough from my 'presaved days' they are new agy in thought... you become enlightened and ascend to a higher plain, etc....

Ummm, I think she's referring to Gnosticism as a Christian-based heresy as opposed to pagan Gnosticism not based on anything Christian. I'm pretty sure we all agree here that one cannot be a "Christian Gnostic."

"One cannot be a Christian and be Gnostic."

Are you serious??? What a prideful, shallow, and fear-encompassed comment. Who are you to say this? And its my guess that you, like many here, have not read the gnostic texts with an open mind. If you go into anything thinking that it is going to be filled with darkness, evil, deceit, and malice, surely, that is all you will see.

First of all, Christ's words have always been crypic-- whether they are included in the canon or elsewhere. We have 2000 years of dogma, of human designation and interpretation, to apply to the words of Christ that are in the New Testament. It is because of these 2000 years **ONLY** that we all have any sembalence of a religion. But the truth of the matter is that Christ spoke in parables, riddles, and descriptives that in many times are ambiguous at best. Try and remove your blinders when reading his words in the NT and you, too, will find that His concepts (that we all find so simplistic now thanks to those 2000 years) are very deep, crypic statements. Only a Master, one with total knowledge of the Creator, the Great Spirit, could possibly say the things in the Book. And likewise, how can we, mere simpletons, even hope to understand the smallest iota of Christ's teachings. It is impossible. All we can hope for are simplifications... which is what the church as done in the past 2000 years to His words.

Secondly, how can you, or anyone in this thread, remove the politics out of the formation of the Canon? And, really, why does it matter? Do you really think that those people who were on the canon had any real direct link to God? Do you think they had X-ray vision wherein they could determine what was "God-Breathed" and what wasn't? Give me a break. Back in the fifth century, there was MUCH more competition going on for incluence than there is now in 2006. Today, the Catholics and Protestants are still fighting over insignificant details (use this forum for proof). Do you think there was any difference then??? When the stakes where higher? When there was major disagreements to the interpretations of Christ's cryptic words that he had spoken 400 years prior? Politics, whether in nations or within institutions has existed since the beginning of time. Surely, it plays a huge role whever the majority wants to do away with the minority... which is exactly what happened when the established Christian church wanted to get rid of any differing opinion. And lets face it, 2000 has not really changed anything, as currently we Christians still want to remove anything that WE (not necessarily God) disagree with.

And lastly, I just might add that the Gnostic Gospels might just be the most valuable, richest treasure trove that Western Civilization (at least) has. Why? For simply this reason: Because humanity has not assigned their interpretation to Christs words-- yet. If you pick up any of the Gnostic Gospels, you will find Christ's words unadulterated, unfiltered, pristine, and without humanity's influence. Right now whenever you open your Bible, you have everyone else's opinion screaming in your ear whenever you read any passage. How can you separate what is real with what is blatant interpretation? You can't.

But the beauty with the Gnostic Gospels is that they have only been discovered for ~50 yrs (the Nag Hammadi at least). No dogma has yet to be assigned to them. If you have enough patience, you can read the words the others have recorded of Christ, and make up your mind, FOR YOURSELF, of what Christ was saying. And maybe, just maybe, they will agree, concur, harmonize, jive with not only your existing beliefs, but with the beliefs off All- Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Toaist, etc. After all, how could Christ's message not be applicable to all?

as currently we Christians still want to remove anything that WE (not necessarily God) disagree with.

After all, how could Christ's message not be applicable to all?

All this, and still, you confess Nicaean Trinintarian orthodoxy? Hmmm.

My...what truth. There are so many chunks I want to take out from the Bible! All that stuff about genocides, slavery, you-can't-love-both-the-world-and-God-at-the-same-time doctrine...

And then we'll play right into the hands of the atheists and the gnostics, and most importantly, the Devil. The reason why the Bible is so detestable to so many people is exactly because bits of it is detestable. We dare not change the Word of God without His guidance, so let it be detestable! If God's Word was easy to swallow, I'd be quite worried at the quality of God!!




It is already applicable to all without the gnostic texts. You can find Christians in all countries, all cultures.

OK, first of all, I wasn't referring to removing parts of the Bible. I was making reference as to how us Christians like to try and convert ANYONE, regardess of how pious, devout, or Godly they might be under their own religion.

Its funny, I was thinking about this reply and I came to this: Ultimately, differing religions are akin to different languages. Do you think God differentiates between prayers spoken in English to prayers spoken in Russian, Punjabi, or Manderin? Of course not, something simple like that is no problem for Something as might as our God. Conversely, do you think God really differentiates between different earthly cultures? Because, really when you boil everything down, different religions are soley based on two things: God and the indiginous culture. Meaning, the genesis of all religions is first, God. Second, the culture. So in the same respect as language, do you really think that God cares AT ALL about the cultural part? Throw out your dogma and think about that.